January Happenings

I got to chaperone Adam's awesome art field trip!

 Shrek has been terrorizing the villagers- 

sometimes a little too well. 

A Day in the Life of Shrek- 

We had one three day weekend in January, and boy did we have fun with it!  Mermaid bowling, pizza and arcade games thanks to Christmas presents was the first highlight of the weekend.  Three of us broke 100 in bowling, but that definitely was because the bumpers were up. 

Emma learned the disappointing truth about the claw game, and I want to remember that Noah only wanted one Toxic Waste candy, even though he had enough points to buy five, and so Adam bought some extras and gave them to Noah. 

We had a busy Sunday but managed to squeeze in dinner with friends, and on Monday we went ice skating!  But first, an intense game of The Floor is Lava. 

Noah was nervous about ice skating.  By his recollection he'd never been before, and a quick blog search tells me that indeed, he has only been one time, when he was basically still a babe in my arms. But he is our best roller-blader and scooter-er, so it came as no surprise that he did great!  At first he was hunched over a walker, but once I convinced him that he would have a lot more fun without it, he was off and lapping the rest of us!

We met up with some of our favorite WDM friends. 

And enjoyed a hot chocolate break or two. 

Best buddies. 

Daddy was there too!

Adam got a beautiful wooden display map for his States quarters from Grandpa. 

There was a highly anticipated ice and snow storm one night.  We all went to bed with high hopes that there would be a snow day, or at least a two hour delay the next morning, but no such luck. It was business as usual, except for the part where Adam's bus got stuck in the snow while helping another bus that was stuck in the snow and then a big branch fell and broke his bus's windshield.  I think we all could have just stayed inside that morning, but I sure was thankful for Daddy clearing the driveway!  That is true love right there. 

Emma had her first orchestra concert of the year this month!

The music was beautiful but the best part was definitely when Jeffrey grew arms and legs and took a picture with Emma!

The Battle of the Puff continues, with Emma, Noah and Adam all contending for the rights to make the German puff pancake on Sunday morning and thereby get first pick of the biggest puff.  It was a hilarious coincidence that the boys made this massive, one-sided puff last Sunday. 

It was finally warm enough and snowy enough to go sledding!  I love hearing the stories of their adventures, and I kind of love that I don't have to go out with them.  I'm on hot cocoa duty these days!

And while Laney does her best to keep up with the kids, she always comes back inside with snowballs stuck to her legs and underside, and really does much better on watchdog duty. 

We have the sweetest sister missionaries in our ward- one of them was friends with Cousin Sarah in high school!

Grandpa Noah loves his morning word search and bran cereal. 

Emma got an early Valentine this month!

Adam and Jason wrapped up their first season of robotics!  They could say a whole lot more about this exciting and time consuming endeavor than I could, but I will say that it was a rewarding learning experience for both of them.  They were challenged, learned a lot, and are both looking forward to next year.  And they made cool sweatshirts, got free food from Chick-fil-a, competed in the final 12, and received the Judges Choice award.  What an experience!

We had some new visitors to the birdfeeders- the wild turkeys!  Thank goodness they didn't fly up to the actual feeders, just pecked around at the spilled seed on the ground.

We have had a good number of blue skies this January, which has made the dreary month just a bit more bearable. 

We went to see a movie!  Shrek and Donkey posed by the Puss in Boots poster before retiring to the car while the rest of us went in and laughed and lounged for a few hours. That was a fun afternoon. 

We hosted mission prep at our house and had an awesome stake escape room night and invited friends out to dinner and worked hard and learned a lot and ate good food and got the carpets cleaned and attended a baptism and archery practices and a tournament and did all kinds of good things, but above all, I think January could be summed up like this- 

just lazing around waiting for the cold and dark days to pass.  I was acutely reminded this month why we enjoy traveling in January.  And while none of us- not even Jason, who 'had' to spend a week in Mexico for work and dared to express his disinterest in it- have rekindled the desire to travel again, there is definitely something to be said about getting the heck out of the negative temps and gray days of Iowa winter.  I'm glad for all of the happy mid-winter travel memories we have made in the past. And I'm grateful for all of the ways that we did spend the month- all in all it was a good one!

The Year of Jesus

 We are excited to be studying the New Testament this year- we've declared it the Year of Jesus!  Taken from other ideas floating around the internet, we have talked about the seven colors in the rainbow, the seven days of The Creation, our call to forgive 70 x 7, the leper who washed 7 times to be cleaned, and most exciting of all, the numbers of the year 2 + 0 + 2 + 3 = 7!  Definitely the year of Jesus. Seven is considered the number of completion and perfection in the scriptures, and we are ready to learn more from His example about how we can become more complete and perfect.  

We have already had great gospel conversations about His birth and childhood, his ministry, his baptism and what it all means in our lives.  One of my goals is to start and finish our Come, Follow Me study strong, so I will occasionally post our progress here on the blog.  

The best scripture lessons are accompanied by a visual of some sort, and the kids were all ears and eyes the week that we talked about the enabling power of the atonement with the help of a ping pong ball and a hair dryer- which was made extra fun by Laney's obsession with the ball. 

And we had a great lesson this week from Emma about the power of both baptism by fire and by water!

We love Jesus Christ!  And we love learning how much He loves us!  

Happy 4th Birthday Laney!

 

Someone had a birthday!!

We have yet to celebrate Laney's birthday on the actual day, January 22nd, but we always have a great party when we do celebrate!

Just look at this regal little pup.  She knew something was up and she was ready to party!

She doesn't show her bottom teeth very often- I think she was getting a little annoyed with the camera in the face. 

There's the birthday pupcake!  Extra small because she's an extra small pup!

And far more exciting was the race to find the annual chicken head, 

So gross!

And a few days later, on her actual birthday, a cow kneecap.  Dog birthday treats are weird, but they sure made her happy! And she makes us so happy!  I think I gush about Laney often enough here on the blog, but I'll say it one more time- she's the very best non-human member of our family!  She cheers us up when we're sad, always makes coming home an exciting affair, makes the best company when we're alone or lonely, helps us learn and practice responsibility, always tolerates our snuggles into her soft fur, makes us laugh with her wheezing and tapping at her empty food bowl and hopping up to the window whenever we say 'squirrel!', and she loves us unconditionally.  What more could we ask for?  (Maybe a pup who doesn't bark like a crazy beast whenever someone approaches the front door, but I guess even that habit has it's purpose- to protect her people!) 

We love you Laney Bear!  Happy 4th birthday, and sorry about that balloon popping in your face.

How to Live Like an Iowan

We get lots of emails from missionaries on Mondays, and I especially love the ones that highlight some of the cultural differences that our missionaries are experiencing in different parts of the world. In hopes that our kids will some day have observations to share with us about the people they spend their mission time with, I am going to share how to live like an Iowa- AKA, the things that are of note in Iowa that may or may not exist in other cultures. 

1. Have fierce loyalty to a gas station and declare your love for the pizza it serves.  Who knew this was such a big deal?  Iowans.  Pizza from a gas station is an Iowa must-try, and sometimes it's the only option.  Just across the Mississippi River from Iowa in Nauvoo there have been several times when gas station pizza has literally been our only option for a hot meal.  Thank goodness it's so tasty, especially the breakfast pizza from Casey's!

2. Have an adorable lack of understanding about how relatively underwhelming the local natural attractions are-  I've mentioned this one before, but whether I'm talking to an Iowan about skiing in the Rocky Mountains, boat jumping and island snorkeling off the coast of Brazil, or hiking in Glacier National Park, without a doubt someone will counter my story with, "Yes, but have you been to Ledges??"  And we love Ledges!  It's a great place to spend an afternoon and certainly the closest thing to hiking that we're going to find around here, but it's definitely not a national park and for a very good reason!  

A close second is a reference to Lake Okoboji (the 'Cancun of the Midwest') as the only place that any sensible Iowan would ever want to experience sand, sun, and water.  Iowans exude a blissfully contended feeling about where they live.  Why explore the world when you live in such a great state?  We fight pretty hard against that one in our family and take every chance we can to see the world!

3. Base your summertime frame of reference around the state fair. Understandably, Iowans are very proud of our state fair, as it's one of the biggest and longest running fairs in the country.  It's a common question to ask someone if they've seen the butter cow yet or ask them what kind of foods on a stick they're looking forward to eating this year, all kinds of creative people enter all kinds of creations to be judged, and even the school schedule is based on when the fair is over.  

4. Merge a mile or more before it's actually necessary. Boy this one drives me bonkers (see what I did there?).  As soon as Iowans see the sign for an upcoming merge, they promptly and politely do so, leaving the left lane open for far longer than is ever necessary.  I learned how to drive outside of Washington DC and I have no problem zipping right past all of those kind cars to budge right into the front of the line (bonus tip- use the word 'budge' like the rest of the world says 'cut').

5. Have ISU, U of I, or UNI vanity plates on your car that declare your allegiance.  If you've got ISU plates, try to incorporate CY (the mascot cardinal) into your cheeky little message. Similarly, put a school rock in your front yard or paint the mascot on your driveway.  The truest of all Iowans will even paint their garage interior the colors of their school, which is perfect since many Iowans put TVs, chairs, and even bars in their garages so they can watch the game while also enjoying the hot and humidity of the outdoors. 

6. Don't freak out about tornados.  Learn within the first month of living here that the sirens are tested at 11 AM on the first Saturday of every month. Explain to others the difference between a tornado watch and a warning. Proudly swap stories about the worst natural disasters you have encountered while living here- admittedly, we love to tell and hear the stories of the 2022 tornado in nearby Winterset, the widespread damage of the 2020 derecho and the shock of the 2018 flooding in Ankeny. 

7. Similarly, don't freak out about subzero temperatures.  Embrace them.  Happily cancel everything and hunker down when necessary, but then bundle up and get on with life the rest of the winter. It's funny, but there really are levels of cold that require different coats.  Until it's heavy coat season (consistently below zero with a wind chill that takes it to at least -20), you don't really have much to fuss about. 

8. Have all or most of your extended family nearby.  Maybe this one is standard for anywhere in the world, but as 'transplants' to the state, we are definitely in the minority as people who have no family anywhere even remotely close to us.   We are most often asked if we're from Iowa, and if not, why we are here. Corn is a perfectly acceptable answer. 

9. Be religious.  Attend any of the nearby megachurches, preferably the one that offers the most impressive array of youth activities, tastiest coffee shop, best worship band, and most flexible service schedule.  Bonus points to the churches that offer multiple Saturday evening services and Sunday services as early as 7:30 AM so as to make yourself available to all sports practices and games that fill up the rest of the Sunday hours. 

10. Be incredibly proud of your state and happy to simultaneously encourage and discourage people from moving here.  It's a great place to live, a horrible place to visit, and we are happy with the population levels just the way they are, thank you very much!  Iowans have the mindset that everyone should be so lucky to live in such a wonderful place as the heart of the Midwest, and they are so happy to be here (and so are we!)

Where We Live, A Reminder

An envelope full of sweet thank you notes arrived in our mailbox mid-December from one of the branches of our stake who camped out in our backyard last summer.  It was a sweet reminder in the off-season that we have the opportunity to bless others lives with our choice to live here out in the country!

 

Emma, You Look Like a Young Woman

 This sweet young woman has been waiting all year for her turn to join Young Women, and she has jumped right in with both feet!  

She has already given a talk in sacrament meeting, attended mutual and a stake youth conference, volunteered to teach an upcoming lesson, and been to the temple!  Emma is a delightful young woman who is going to get things done and contribute amazing things to her youth group!